ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Anton Kannemeyer and Conrad Botes have been publishing Bitterkomix,, their comics magazine,
for nearly a decade in South Africa. These comics are a structured satyrical attack on the South
African and specifically Afrikaans culture. Both artists employ different narrative strategies to
convey their sometimes shocking message. The reaction on their writing and drawing shows an
unwillingness in certain academic circles to analyse their texts critically. As a result Bitterkomix
has drawn very little academic attention. This unwillingness is a product of the modernist
approach to the comic as "low" literature. Modernists didn't regard comics as worthy material
for critical analyses. The literary paradigm shift towards popular culture, and therefore comics,
and the pluralistic reading strategy ofpostmodemism make it possible for an academic approach
towards this previously ill-treated art form.
This thesis is an attempt to suggest an approach strategy to Bitterkomix as a South African
underground comics magazine. As a backdrop the study looks at the development of comics in
general, as well as the changes that took place in the traditional approach strategies to the modem
comic. It also focusses on selected texts by Kannemeyer and Botes to demonstrate how
Bitterlwmix functions as an underground comic in the changing South African society. The
writers draw upon methods and strategies used by underground comix artists in the United States
during the sixties. Their specific employment of the drawing styles and narrative contents of
artists like Robert Crumb, S. Clay Wilson and also the Belgian artist, Herge, makes
intertextuality one of the strongest postmodemist aspects of Bitterlwmix. Botes's and
Kannemeyer's combined use of intertextuality and other postmodemist metafictional narrative
strategies gives Bitterlwmix a literary value that requires an academic approach.